GoG Knightmare Frames
Knightmare Frames are humanoid war machines developed by the United States of America. Knightmare Frames are almost exclusively used in place, and sometimes on par with the practically obsolete main battle tanks. The name "Knightmare Frame" is a play on the word nightmare and a knight's mare. Overview Knightmare Frames often have a humanoid shape and are usually between four and five meters tall. In addition to the standard range of bipedal movement, Knightmare Frames are equipped with Landspinners, self-propelled roller skates attached to the ankles of the machines, which allow them to achieve high mobility and speeds on most terrain. Visual data is gathered through Factsphere sensors, which have the thermographic capability and an array of other data-collection functions which are collated in real-time. Factspheres are commonly protected under a layer of armor which can be retracted to improve system sensitivity. Knightmare Frames are piloted from a cockpit set in the protruding hump back in the unit. The cockpit is a self-contained control center that can be ejected in case of an emergency. Knightmare Frames are powered by the Yggdrasil Drive, a fictional energy source. Its centerpiece is a Sakuradite device called the Core Luminous, wherein a cube of unknown composition is weightlessly suspended. The cube revolves at high speeds during a state of drive activation known as Yggdrasil Resonance, apparently involved in the conduction of electricity. The technology is named after the Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse mythology. The drive is recharged through a Sakuradite energy filler. Knightmare Frames are typically armed with rocket-propelled anchors called Slash Harkens and a number of other weapons. Mass-production models usually carry handheld rifles and a number of Chaos Mines, cylindrical air burst grenades that spray deadly shrapnel over a small area. Less common equipment, though more widespread as the series progresses, are Maser Vibration Swords (MVS), a form of vibroblade which oscillates at a high ratio to cut through almost anything, and Hadron Cannons, powerful energy cannons which can obliterate almost anything in their path. History The creation and development of Knightmare Frames are roughly divided into individual ages, which mark the birth of a new kind of weapon platform and its evolution into a full-fledged combat system. First Age: Infancy The beginnings of the Knightmare Frame came from the creation of 'emergency survival cockpits' for conventional vehicles. Equipped with rocket engines to fly the crew away from the wreck, the contraptions were soon equipped with artificial legs to allow greater mobility. The limited room inside said vehicles restricted the number of legs to two. Though not a weapon in any sense of the word, the 'walking cockpits' provided the base form for their successors. First Generation Machine(s): Walking Tanks Second Age: Turning Point Several years later, the creation of several common Knightmare Frame technologies, such as the Factspheres and Landspinners, lead to the funding for Knightmare Frame prototypes. However, the new technologies performed erratically, and the research was outsourced to military-based robotics projects and social-oriented programs. The former was assigned to a U.S. Army special unit, the Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps (ASEEC, aka Columbia), while the latter went in the hands of British-American James Ashford and his company, Ashford Industries. The foundation implemented technologies related to training and education, enabling the entire Knightmare Frame program to make progress fluidly. The bipedal weapon was nicknamed Knightmare by the Army but its non-offensive equipment was referred to as Frame by civilians. The union of those two terms gave birth to the name Knightmare Frame. Second Generation Machine(s): Los Angeles T'hird Age: Archetype' With the results gained from the two separate programs, Knightmare Frames were developed in combat-effective platforms. Use of Sakuradite became paramount in making the Knightmare Frames perform to expectations, resulting in the mineral's value increasing greatly, turning it into a resource as important as fossil fuel in international politics. The Third Age also marked the creation of the Ganymede prototype, manufactured and designed by the Ashford Industries. Its test pilot, Marianne Lamperouge, quickly became famous, eventually getting married to then U.S. Senator from New York and future Vice-President Charles le Bretan. Third Generation Machine(s): Ganymede More to come... Category:Knightmare Frames